Neuroscience has undergone recent leaps and bounds, much of which can be attributed to doctors like Jorge Moll of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Many unforeseen aspects of human behavior have been unearthed through studies in which Dr. Moll has participated.

Dr. Moll has researched the neural bases of behavior and moral cognition. Through his knowledge of neuroscience and social psychology, he continues to reveal the connection between moral emotions and anti-social behavior. One of his primary tools is the functional magnetic resonance imaging that allows him to make clinical and neuropsychological studies of patients with neuropsychiatric disorders. Through the fMRI, he has discovered the interconnection between the brain’s unique function, moral cognition and behavior. Many have concluded from his studies that morality is probable hard-wired into the brain as a part of natural evolution. Visit Jorge’s profile on facebook.com.

Further studies of Dr. Moll have revealed through the use of functional imaging that frontopolar prefrontal cortex, ventromedial frontal and basal forebrain regions are the areas of the brain that experience of prosocial sentiments. Patients who behave inappropriately socially often are impaired with lesions of the frontopolar prefrontal cortex and ventromedial frontal areas resulting in an emotional blunting. He also studied this concern in patients with the behavioral frontotemporal dementia, a disorder that results in impairments of social conduct. An 18-Fluoro-Deoxy-Glucose-Positron Emission Tomography showed that the degree of impairment of prosocial sentiments was directly associated with the degree of damage to frontopolar prefrontal cortex and septal area. This medical system measured the neurodegenerative damage.

Through these test, he could discern the dysfunction of the This effect was prefrontal and amygdala. Dr. Jorge Moll’s findings suggested the frontopolar cortex and septal region were necessary tools for enabling prosocial sentiments, an important element for developing and using a moral conscience.

Jorge Moll obtained his degree in medicine from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro in 1994 and his PhD in pathophysiology Experimental-human physiology from the University of São Paulo in 2004. Today, he is president, board member and senior researcher at the D’Or Institute for Research and Education in Rio de Janeiro which focuses its energies on scientific research and education in healthcare and biotechnology. It was co-founded by Dr. Jorge Moll Neto and Dr. Fernanda Tovar-Moll in 2010. Visit Ideamensch to know more about Jorge Moll.